Okay.  By now we’ve given you thirty-five different ways to help your baby sleep.  That’s a lot of information, and I’m sure that you’re not actually using all thirty-five.  Still, you probably have a plan (or you should) for what techniques you are going to use.  Having a plan is essential because you have thought out what you would like to do in advance, so when your baby isn’t sleeping well, you don’t have to make everything up as you go.

 

This is not to say that you won’t need to “wing it” occasionally - you probably will, and sometime quite frequently - but having a plan means that you’ve thought out what you believe in doing (for example, the whole “cry it out” debate) and you are prepared with some ideas for when your baby isn’t sleeping.  This is also not to say that your plan can’t change.  Like any plan, you will need to make what I call “in-flight adjustments.”  In other words, you’ll need to tweak what isn’t working and experiment to figure out what works well for your baby, and you’ll need to constantly make these changes, as your baby continues to develop, and his or her needs change as a result.

 

Now, that being said, since the title of this tip is “stick with your plan,” this must not be a tip about changing your plan every time your baby does something different.  Like everything else, balance is important.

 

First of all, it’s important to be consistent in how you implement your plan.  For example, if you’ve decided that you’re not going to snuggle with your baby to get them to sleep, but instead are going to nurse them, and put them straight into their crib or cot, without any extra coddling, then by all means, don’t give in and change your plan the first time your baby fusses.  Not being consistent just teaches your baby that if they cry enough, you will change to accommodate them.  Your baby doesn’t always know what is best for him or her, so you need to sometimes be persistent with your plan.

 

Now, this also doesn’t mean that you should be completely rigid and never change.  A good rule of thumb is to give anything that you try a week or two, to give your baby enough time to get used to it.  Any shorter length of time before you try something new, and you haven’t really seen if it will work, and you will probably just confuse your baby.  Old habits take a while to disappear, and new habits take a while to become patterns.  However, if you take much longer than a week or two to change plans if things aren’t working, then you’re probably only frustrating yourself and your baby with something that doesn’t work, and isn’t likely to.

 

Remembering that a predictable routine is probably the best baby sleep strategy that you can use, it is important to have a plan, and stick with it.  Your baby will sleep better as a result.

 

Andrew Dolbin-MacNab

Pediasleep LLC

 

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     About the Author:

 

Andrew Dolbin-MacNab is a father, sound-engineer, and the founding member of Pediasleep LLC, a leader in the production of white noise and other soothing sounds to aid the healthy sleep of infants, cosleepers, and parents. Having successfully survived his daughter's early sleep problems with the help of white noise, he is also an expert on infant sleep problems and their solutions. Pediasleep can be found online at http://www.Pediasleep.com.